Idealism Departing From American Political System

December 9, 1994

The first vote I cast was for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The idealism with which I cast that vote has been somewhat eroded since then, although I have never lost my admiration for our two-party system - warts and all.

However, the recent elections have me wondering whether the idealism I am losing has not already been lost by the millions of Americans who chose not to vote and those millions of angry citizens who voted against President Clinton (in effect) after a scant two years in which he failed to reach the goals for which they had elected him. Those goals were sabotaged by the Democratic members of the House and Senate whose eyes were on local pork rather than the national good.

Newt Gingrich is said to have remarked shortly after Clinton was elected that he might turn out to be "another Roosevelt."Knowing the record of Gingrich, I suspect his remark was made with apprehension rather than admiration.

I believe, however he meant it, that Gingrich was correct. Had the Democratic members of the House and Senate followed the traditional philosophy of their party, great things might have been accomplished under the Clinton administration.

If the present cynical trend in politics and the caliber of our elected representatives continues to be as shallow as it is now, I expect more millions of disillusioned Americans will join the nonvoters with the silent wish born of frustration: "A plague on both your houses."